Sunday, July 20, 2014

Federal Court Rules Against Huntsville's Segregated Caste System of Schools

. . . . "The record in this case is not as clear as the Board suggests, and
the fact that the district integrated the student bodies of many of its
schools in the early 1970s does not automatically lead to the conclusion
that the district does not currently operate a dual system," she wrote.
She pointed out that not only were many schools still segregated, but
the opportunity to take advanced classes also appeared linked to race.

She noted testimony from a white mother who withdrew her child from a
predominantly black high school because it offered fewer advanced
academic courses than other schools.

"While private choices seem to have precipitated the existing racial
polarization of the district's schools, it is not clear...that the
district has not contributed to the situation," she wrote. "There is a
significant disparity between the educational programs in the district's
predominately African-American secondary schools and the educational
programs in the district's predominately white schools."

That disparity, she said, could even be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Huntsville schools had taken several steps to improve educational
outcomes for black students, including adopting universal school
breakfast programs and increasing pre-kindergarten classrooms. But the
judge's ruling seemed skeptical of whether the district would continue
these efforts once court oversight ended.

"The Board submits that the district's conduct over the past 50 years
demonstrates good faith. Recent events, though, have hurt the board's
record," she wrote. She catalogued Huntsville's 20-year failure to file
required reports, its track record of missing data and incomplete
information, and its public criticism of a requirement in the order that
the district allow students to transfer into schools where they are a
racial minority.

Haikala set two magistrate judges to the task of gathering
information and to work with the district and the Justice Department to
come up with a plan to address any other issues needed to get the
district in compliance with the order, and ultimately, to end it.

Huntsville's children, she wrote, "have no control over where they
live now, but giving them a strong education is the surest way to ensure
that they will have choices about where they will live in the future
and what they will do when they become adults."